A Fire Fueled by Garnets
by umeboshi
Summary: Sailor Pluto must come to Earth before the appointed time to set the wheels of fate in motion. What she does not expect is to be touched by fire . . .
1. Smoke

This is an old, old story that I thought I'd put here and see what reaction it got – I hope everyone enjoys it. The R rating is a bit exaggerated but I thought I'd give it that just in case anyone's squeamish. By the way, this fic is not for those who cannot cope with girl's having a "something more" relationship. If you can't than bugger off, I don't want to hear it.

Whenever there are italics it's for a dream, meaning Rei or whoever is having a dream or they're in an alternate reality. 

There's a bit of a vocab lesson at the end of the chapter for those who need it – sorry about that.

-Umeboshi

Disclaimer: BSSM is by Takeuchi Naoko and definitely NOT me. . . .yeah, we figured that one out on our own, right? I hope so guys. All character's belong to her, most of these scenarios belong to me … not all of them grant it. 

A Fire Fueled by Garnets

Chp. I - Smoke

Rei:

I could feel the skin crease between my long black eyebrows. Why wouldn't this fog that covered my sight clear? The acrid smoke of the ceremonial fire encircled me, a wreath around my head. I could hear Ojii-chan cough politely behind me; how long had I been sitting on the cold temple floor? I stirred, pinpricks of pain running up and down my legs as I began to move them. It took a great effort to lift my eyelids, and I almost wished I could sit there immobile forever. I stood stiffly, straightening my hibakama, and brushing a stray wisp of long black hair behind my ear. It was hard to meet Ojii-chan's gaze as I stumbled sleepily through the fusuma and into the furo.

            The steaming water greeted my aching body, sliding over my arms and legs silently. I allowed my fevered mind to relax and my imagination to take over, brilliant dreams spinning through my head.

            _A low chuckle, a sound that broke out from deep within someone's chest and stuck chords in your heart. I could see a slim body ahead of me, the tall writhing form - dancing just beyond my fingertips. I knew wanting her was wrong, longing to wrap my hands around fistfuls of her thick, shinning hair. Was that why my fingers begged for her ivory skin? I am drowning in a thick world of falsehoods. Nothing I know is based in reality. I must know the truth. Lies are chocking my narrow throat. I cannot breathe. _

I awoke with a start as the scorching water churned down my throat and over my head. My arms thrashing, and I pulled myself up onto to wooden rim of the furo. My torso heaved with the effort to rid itself of the furo's water. I gasped as Ojii-chan jumped from behind the door and lifted me in his feeble arms. I thought to myself that he was stronger then I'd imagine before I drifted off into my dark nightmares once again.

. . . 

Soft sunlight, yet still harsh against my sore eyes, slid across the tatami mats and onto my futon. My ears registered low voices above the roaring sound that echoed inside my head.

"Sumimasen Ojii-san, but we were worried!" A girl's high, chirpy voice whispered.

"Iie, dozo. Rei would never forgive me if I turned you away Usagi-chan!" I snickered softly to myself, Ojii-chan would never forgive himself either! To have lost a valuable chance to flirt shamelessly with a young teenage girl! I pushed myself up, my body aching and screaming out for more sleep. 

"Usa-chan, kiite kudasai. I'm not going to die," yet at least, I thought as my body wailed out in pain.

She groaned in response as she peered around the Fusuma, and then smiled and plopped ungracefully down next to my futon. The smallest of all of the girls, Tsukino Usagi had large blue-black eyes and an almost gaijin complexion, with creamy skin and long pale hair that curled more easily than most Japanese girls'. Her eyes widened and her voice rose in pitch with excitement, "Rei-chan, we met new boys! You'll be so sorry you missed them!" Usagi babbled as my head throbbed relentlessly. I nodded, dismissing her internally, before once again closing my eyes and falling asleep.

. . . 

A heavy, perfumey scent pervaded my senses as I rolled over, wrapping the blanket closer around my shoulders. I felt something smooth and damp touch my cheek, cooling against my fevered skin. I blinked, pushing away the cloud of sleep, forcing my eyes to open. Directly in front of my nose lay a dark red rosebud. 

The contents of my plain room were still swimming as I tried to focus on the small blur of movement within the flower. A black spider had spun its silvery web over the center of the bud. My breath caught in marvel of this small and natural beauty. Who could possibly have done this? Mamoru? Had my Mamo-kun come back to me? My nose instinctually tried to pick up his scent in the room. Nowhere could I smell his light, manly fragrance. A tear rolled quietly down my cheek, leaving a paling line through the scarlet of my hot skin. I shuddered trying to control my burning passion and rage, locking it safely back within myself.

 Endimion-sama was rightly Sereniti-hime's, a love foreordained, and thus it was wiser for me to let go of Mamo-kun in this life. He could not belong to the princess in one world, and me in the other. Someday not too far away Mamo-kun and Endimion-sama would be one and the same, and he would no longer be mine then even in imagination, for a queen's soldier cannot love her queen's husband. 

. . .

**Translations language wise and explanations:**

"The sight" – when Rei refers to her "sight" she is speaking of being able to read futures/dreams/the past in the ceremonial fire.

Ojii-chan – an endearing term for grandfather in Japanese.

Temple – (I know you're not stupid- just hear me out) a Shinto temple.

Hibakama – ceremonial miko (priestess) in training wear.

Fusuma – Sliding rice paper door.

Furo – Japanese bath tub.

Futon – traditional Japanese bed, a mattress on the floor.

Tatami – woven straw mats used to cover the floor.

Sumimasen – translates to: excuse me, or I'm sorry.

Iie – translates to: no.

Dozo – translates to: go ahead (an offering of sorts).

Gaijin – translates to: term for people of Caucasian descent (usually derogatory).


	2. Meiou

The name Sereniti-sama is in reference to Queen Sereniti, while Sereniti-hime is Princess Sereniti, just to make the distinction since both are referred to in the story.

One character that Takeuchi Naoko did _not_ create is Hino Sumire, she is my own creation – Rei's long dead mother whose memory continues to haunt Rei throughout the story.

Again look for vocab at the end!

-Umeboshi

Disclaimer: Takeuchi-san knows what's hers, you should too.

Chapter II - Meiou

Rei:

I sat, itching for fresh air, my legs folded neatly beneath me. The sound of scratching pens grating against my nerves. I flopped backwards onto the makura, my long legs spreading out underneath the chabudai, wiggling my toes to try and restore feeling into them. Minako-chan hummed the lines from a new pop song softly to herself, her usually sweet and feminine voice buzzing in my ears. Even though I undoubtedly loved her most of any of the senshi, her strength often shone through her tall curves, dazzling glossy blonde hair and bright blue eyes, for a bitter moment I thought that it she lucky she was beautiful enough that she didn't need any real talent for she had none. 

"Shitsukoi naa!" My voice was louder then I had anticipated, breaking through the comfortable gathering like a fist shattering glass. Four pairs of blue-black eyes stared back at me, unabashedly dazed. Ami reacted quickly after her unusual lapse in quick thinking. She began to pick up books and rearrange things on the chabudai, ordering me and the other three girls around in soft self-assured tons, her classical choppy black haircut swinging around her chin and ears and her large glasses heavily down her nose.

"Aa! Mite, we need more o-cha if we're going to do all this studying! Usagi-chan, baka, drank all of it. Rei-chan, will you go get some more?" I nodded, and feeling a little silly after my outburst hurried quickly out into the courtyard and down the hill.

The thin sheet of rain dripped steadily off of the leaves onto my head. I paused, leaning against a street sign to catch my breath. The cold metal against my wet skin made Goosebumps rise along my arms and legs. A mother and daughter stood; ready to cross the street beneath their red umbrella. The autumn air seeped through my lungs, making me feel cleaner inside then I had in months. 

I sighed pressing my back against the thin metal post, and bending my knees. I ought to question nothing. Really . . . I ought to be happy knowing that I am finally, once again, with my princess. That the soldier can finally serve the queen once again. That my soul was no longer straggling through the starry heavens searching, climbing across the night sky calling out for what I had lost. We were all reunited once again, and the world could be at peace. All of the senshi had found each other in the layers of time. Sereniti-hime would soon come to the throne, and for now Sailor Moon was our greatest concern, her happiness above all else . . . her safety. Her life.

A drop of water dripped onto my nose from my limp, wet bangs. I clumsily pushed the hapless strands away from my face as I glanced up. Across the street stood a tall woman, looking very out of place. Streams of gray water ran down her neck, between her breasts, and along the lines of her legs. Her black dress clung inappropriately close to her toned body, and long black hair that shone green in the storm-light was wrapped up in a messy odango that hung low on her neck.

Her long shadowed eyes glanced back and forth over the street, a frightened deer ready to run off into the safety of green foliage once again. Before I could control myself, I found my legs carrying me over several puddles, and tugging on my own wrinkled buruuma. I stood close enough to smell her perfume, a musky, exotic scent, my mind tangled. 

"Konnichiwa, hajime mashite. Hino Rei desu." The woman looked confused, her sharp, mirror-like brown eyes piercing my soul with a bitter accuracy. "You l-looked lost, may I help you?" I stuttered, and then felt like an idiot and began to turn away. I _never _stuttered. A sardonic grin curled the corners of her thin, elegant scarlet mouth.

"You're Hino-san, ne? Hai, then you have helped me, for it was you I was looking for." A gravely chuckle issued forth and tugged at my heart. She was the thing that had been haunting my dreams. 

I could feel the icy cold water leaving a sticky trail as it ran down my back. The image of the woman began to swim before my tired eyes. I reached out a hand and unknowingly grasped her black sleeve. I felt myself begin to fall backwards as her strong arms reached forward and supported me. I fell against her, the energy gone from every muscle in my body.

…

The steady tapping of rain against the amando woke me up. A memory reached out to me through my hazy half-sleep state. __

_I was snuggled into the lap of a soft, sweet woman; her round small white hands, like blossoms,  stroked my baby cheek. 'Rei-chan, when you hear the rain tapping on the amando, you know that it is cold and wishes to come inside.' A laugh like fuurin. _

I could smell o-cha drifting through the chilly house. A woman's voice talking softly in the background, Okaa-san. "Okaa-san, I don't feel good." Only after the words slipped out of my mouth did I pause. Okaa-san was gone. She wasn't ever coming back, she was dead. A hot and frustrated tear ran down my face, I had no mother and if I had my way I would never see my Chichi again. Gentle measured footsteps neared my futon and a hand slipped down through the mass of my wiry dark hair and to my cheek. "Rei-san? Are you alright?" I turned, gouging my nails into the soft flesh of my palm. No one was allowed to see my tears. 

"I'm fine, doumo arigato." I froze as I took in the face that hovered above me. Long delicate features ran across the angular face. Her skin was a deeply tanned ivory, solid and yet slightly unreal. Ropes of green-black hair hung down about her neck, and her slanted brown eyes were as piercing as before. 

"Sumimasen. I have not yet introduced myself," her voice was strong and controlled, even and deep, "Meiou Setsuna desu." I nodded slowly, not trusting myself to speak. Why was she here? Ojii-chan shuffled in carrying a tray with a steaming cup of o-cha. 

"Rei-chan, you're awake! I've met your new friend here," he winked, a mischievous grin spreading across his wrinkled old face. "Well I'll leave you two girls to talk." He smiled again, and set down the tray.

Setsuna sat back on her heels, regarding me with an amused glint in her dark eyes. "Dou itashi mashite." 

"Nani?" I sounded shorter then I had thought, and blushed in embarrassment. 

She waved away my protests, "I have something to show you Hino-san, so close your eyes and don't say anything." I felt her cold fingers brush across my temples as glowing green sparks began to conjure behind my eyelids. An image took shape.

_A molten green, black, and scarlet sky grew before me. The same tall, shadowed figure from my dreams standing against the strange background. A glowing gray-green orb was suspended above her hand as she began to turn a slow circle, a wall of green and black flames surrounding her._

_Against a dark aurora stood a tell senshi holding a dark silver staff, the sign of meiou-sei emblazoned in scarlet on her forehead. _

Setsuna-san was one of us.

My eyes felt the same heavy boring weight that they had felt when I tried to see. I tilted my face cautiously towards Setsuna-san. "Do you know why my seeings are clouded?" Perhaps within her secrets she held my answers, perhaps Sereniti-sama had finally sent this senshi to answer my prayers, to save her daughter from my sightless state.

"Sumimasen, Hino-san, but you have something to do before your eyes will clear once more." I searched her face with every sense I knew. Somewhere, hidden in those brown eyes, was the answer to everything. She knew it all.

"You would not tell me what it was even if you did know, ne?" She smiled a secret smile, drawn tight across her teeth, masking a thousand words.

"Aa! It is time you got up. You've been asleep for very long." She sank back on her heels, and then pushed herself up, not even faltering in the liquid movement. She turned, hair glinting in the light, and moved silently from my room. My head reeled, bemoaning the fact that sleep was not everlasting. Meiou-san had not yet told me why she had been looking for me; I wrinkled my forehead, wondering what the elegant senshi had wanted me for? She was so unlike the other five of us, not to mention the princess herself.

            I knelt on the floor in front of my low kagani. The objects were well worn, things that I had known since I was little. Old tubes of lipstick stood lined in rows against the glass, Ojii-chan lent me the yen every year to refill them with new colors. I slid off the cap of one, twisting the silver base as the deep red glided out of its gleaming sheath. I smudged it over my lips and onto my cheeks, bringing out the brilliant ruby of my features. A pale wooden comb rested, several long black hairs caught in the teeth. Along the edge of the delicate surface was carved the name Hino Sumire. I blinked back my memories, pulling the slender thing through my hair, and placing in back on the table.

            I stood, wriggling into a purple dress. I slid the fusuma open and scanned the jinja for Setsuna-san. She stood waiting for me by the torii, a maple leaf crowning her dark hair. "Sumimasen, but where are we going Setsuna-san?" 

            "We're going for a long walk – that's all you need to know Rei-san. You need the exercise and I have never seen much of Tokyo in person." I barely had time to wonder what she had meant before she took off down the hill. I ran, marveling at her speed and balance in the crocodile black high-heels that stemmed off of her long pale legs.  We spoke little during the walk, leaving me to marvel at the diverse stranger I had chanced upon only the day before. Certain things seemed to baffle her, the speed of cars, flickering street signs, and the food that yatai sold. I wondered if I had discovered an ancient princess, suddenly thrown into the present. But were not all of the senshi something of the same thing? Out of place in this world where ancient promises and loyalties meant little, and the love and memory of a past life meant nothing.

            Her pace slowed as we neared Nihonbashi, and she glanced back at me assessing my condition. She stood, both hands on the railing, staring out into the water with a calmly. Out of breath, and feeling redder than I had intended, I pulled myself up onto the railing, leaning over so that the world seemed to spin sideways. "Aa! Watch out Rei-san! That's dangerous!" The note of fear in her voice was higher than I had expected, her serious brown eyes narrowing to an even thinner line. I laughed at her, feeling the  air washing away the darkness of my recent mood. 

            "Where do we go now Setsuna-san?" I felt like a little child once again, a pudgy girl reaching for her Haha's hand and flushing with excitement. She shot me a quizzical smile, privately chuckling over my lost dignity but I merely smiled in return, refusing to let her ruin my joy.

…

**Translations language wise and explanations:**

Makura – cushion

Chabudai - Low table

Shitsukoi naa – translates to: Stop that (it's so annoying)!

O-cha – tea

Baka – translates to: stupid/idiot/fool

Odango – dumpling, but in BSSM is usually used to refer to the buns in Usagi's hairstyle.

Buruuma –  girl's gym shorts

Konnichiwa, hajime mashite. Hino Rei desu – translates to: Hello, nice to meet you. I am Rei Hino.

Hai – translates to: yes.

Amando – heavier sliding doors on the outside of houses.

Fuurin – temple bells.

Okaa-san – mother (mother can also translate into Haha).

Chichi – father.

Doumo Arigato – translates to: thank you.

Nani – translates to: what

Meiou-sei – the name for the planet Pluto.

Kagani – dresser

Jinja – Shinto shrine.

Torii - gatepost in front of a Shinto shrine.

Yatai – street vendor

Nihonbashi – bridge in Tokyo.


	3. Kuro Hana

This'll be a short one – sorry guys ^^

Look for you're weekly vocab lesson!

-Umeboshi

Disclaimer: Takeuchi Naoko has no time to sue me, she's a busy woman and I CARE about her time, oh yes I do, so I won't give her a reason to either.

Chapter III – Kuro Hana

Rei:

            The sun was setting slowly, leaving a brilliant wash of colors behind the darkly lit buildings. Setsuna-san and I wandered through Ueno Kouen, my feet beginning to ache as we watched the hotaru slowly light up in the distance. I pointed, "They're rare now, you don't see them very often."

She didn't say anything in response, but I knew she was watching them with sadness.

Unintentionally my hand slipped into Setsuna-san's. She had long hands, graceful and slender, yet hiding taught muscles, as did the rest of her body. The nails were all filed to an elegant point, a blackish scarlet brushed on in smooth and even coats. At first her hand spread in shock, and then instinctually it encircled my own work-hardened ones. As my feet tired, I sank back against a bench bringing her down with me. 

The weight of my head seemed to increase, pulling it down onto her sloping shoulder. I felt her pointy chin rest atop my mess of black hair. Her fingers slowly and hesitantly lifting and running through my hair. My head lifted, as if propelled by a separate force, placing a kiss on her thin scarlet lips. Inside of me I knew something was beginning to crumble, whatever I had just done, it had broken something sacred and unspoken that I did not know of. I wondered if the heavens had somehow forbidden the senshi to love one another, but Minako-chan and I often whispered stolen words of comfort to each other when we felt all else failing. I felt her drawing back, her hand sliding out of my hair, the tangles slipping back into place, and then just as quickly she pressed her mouth more tightly against mine. Her lips warmer and fuller under mine than I could have imagined.

 My chin resting on the tips of her slender white ivory fingers, and her narrow tongue gently gliding along the inside of my warm mouth. I placed my hands on the back of her head, releasing the chilled odango. With numb fingers I pressed the back of her neck, drawing her lips against mine with more force. We drew apart, her eyes glittering with an inhuman light. I wondered if she could feel the crumbling inside her as well, but when I met her gaze I saw only the black-glass like stare that made me shiver and want to hold her closer. I stood and she followed, this time it was I that led her across Ueno Kouen and back to the jinja. 

            Ojii-chan could not be found anywhere, he seemed to have disappeared into the mystery of his rooms, and I thanked the heavens for this. The tatami beneath my feet seemed to quiver with the same anticipation that leaked from my every pore. I could feel her eyes boring into my back as I lead her through the fusuma and into my room. The futon was made; another dark rose nestled in the curves of my comforter, the same color as her lips. I drew her long body down against mine onto the futon. My hungry body responding to her long searching fingers.

We were both naïve as children, shivering under icy hands as they struggled with damp clothing. My swollen lips brushed against her neck, loving the faultless ivory skin as her heartbeat reverberated through the small room. "Aa, iie!" Her voice broke through the sound of our heavy breathing. "I can't do this." A look of determination, cold as steel came into her eyes, although she wouldn't meet mine. I felt myself color in frustration.

"What exactly do you want me for, Meiou-san? Why have you come here? Was it to torment my mind? You are here for something and I will know what." I tried to look as stern and determined as she had, but by her smile I knew I had failed. She lifted a long hand, pulling it through my thick hair and pulling me back down to her.

"Rei-chan, there are some things I can never tell you. I am here for a reason, hai that you knew, but what I cannot say. There is a chance that I do not even know what exactly it is. You must trust me when I say I love you, for that reason I forsake things that I have stood by for all eternity." With that pronouncement she leaned over, her hair falling in a dark curtain around my face. Her lips found mine with an eagerness I thought I could not match, and her hands cupped my face, drowning me in the darkness I had only dreamed of. 

. . . 

_I rested on a black rose, the legs of a dark gray and scarlet spider wrapped around me. A slow humming wound around me like the delicate film of web that encased me. I was drowning in sticky sweetness. Soft hands brushed over my skin and in the distance a woman cried. Someone was calling my name, but it was far too much energy to respond. 'Don't cry Okaa-san. Everything will be alright. I'm not dying. Why are you crying Okaa-san?' The voice was mine and yet not. A little Rei. A last bubble of brilliant light rose above me. I could leave the syrupy sweetness now . . . but it was too late. Honeyed darkness enveloped me. Okaa-san, 'You are lost to me forever Rei-chan. You have forsaken your princess. You can never come back, you are a kuro hana now.'_

I heard a soft feather of early snow falling on the roof of the jinja. Someone traced patterns in the frost on the windows. I peered through my eyelashes, the room was full of a cloudy half-light. Setsuna-san's figure shaded the pale glow of the falling snow. I had fallen into the spidery world of this shadowy woman. 

…

            The sun was setting slowly, leaving a brilliant wash of colors behind the darkly lit buildings. Setsuna-san and I wandered through Ueno Kouen, my feet beginning to ache as we watched the hotaru slowly light up in the distance. I pointed, "They're rare now, you don't see them very often."

She didn't say anything in response, but I knew she was watching them with sadness.

Unintentionally my hand slipped into Setsuna-san's. She had long hands, graceful and slender, yet hiding taught muscles, as did the rest of her body. The nails were all filed to an elegant point, a blackish scarlet brushed on in smooth and even coats. At first her hand spread in shock, and then instinctually it encircled my own work-hardened ones. As my feet tired, I sank back against a bench bringing her down with me. 

The weight of my head seemed to increase, pulling it down onto her sloping shoulder. I felt her pointy chin rest atop my mess of black hair. Her fingers slowly and hesitantly lifting and running through my hair. My head lifted, as if propelled by a separate force, placing a kiss on her thin scarlet lips. Inside of me I knew something was beginning to crumble, whatever I had just done, it had broken something sacred and unspoken that I did not know of. I wondered if the heavens had somehow forbidden the senshi to love one another, but Minako-chan and I often whispered stolen words of comfort to each other when we felt all else failing. I felt her drawing back, her hand sliding out of my hair, the tangles slipping back into place, and then just as quickly she pressed her mouth more tightly against mine. Her lips warmer and fuller under mine than I could have imagined.

 My chin resting on the tips of her slender white ivory fingers, and her narrow tongue gently gliding along the inside of my warm mouth. I placed my hands on the back of her head, releasing the chilled odango. With numb fingers I pressed the back of her neck, drawing her lips against mine with more force. We drew apart, her eyes glittering with an inhuman light. I wondered if she could feel the crumbling inside her as well, but when I met her gaze I saw only the black-glass like stare that made me shiver and want to hold her closer. I stood and she followed, this time it was I that led her across Ueno Kouen and back to the jinja. 

            Ojii-chan could not be found anywhere, he seemed to have disappeared into the mystery of his rooms, and I thanked the heavens for this. The tatami beneath my feet seemed to quiver with the same anticipation that leaked from my every pore. I could feel her eyes boring into my back as I lead her through the fusuma and into my room. The futon was made; another dark rose nestled in the curves of my comforter, the same color as her lips. I drew her long body down against mine onto the futon. My hungry body responding to her long searching fingers.

We were both naïve as children, shivering under icy hands as they struggled with damp clothing. My swollen lips brushed against her neck, loving the faultless ivory skin as her heartbeat reverberated through the small room. "Aa, iie!" Her voice broke through the sound of our heavy breathing. "I can't do this." A look of determination, cold as steel came into her eyes, although she wouldn't meet mine. I felt myself color in frustration.

"What exactly do you want me for, Meiou-san? Why have you come here? Was it to torment my mind? You are here for something and I will know what." I tried to look as stern and determined as she had, but by her smile I knew I had failed. She lifted a long hand, pulling it through my thick hair and pulling me back down to her.

"Rei-chan, there are some things I can never tell you. I am here for a reason, hai that you knew, but what I cannot say. There is a chance that I do not even know what exactly it is. You must trust me when I say I love you, for that reason I forsake things that I have stood by for all eternity." With that pronouncement she leaned over, her hair falling in a dark curtain around my face. Her lips found mine with an eagerness I thought I could not match, and her hands cupped my face, drowning me in the darkness I had only dreamed of. 

. . . 

_I rested on a black rose, the legs of a dark gray and scarlet spider wrapped around me. A slow humming wound around me like the delicate film of web that encased me. I was drowning in sticky sweetness. Soft hands brushed over my skin and in the distance a woman cried. Someone was calling my name, but it was far too much energy to respond. 'Don't cry Okaa-san. Everything will be alright. I'm not dying. Why are you crying Okaa-san?' The voice was mine and yet not. A little Rei. A last bubble of brilliant light rose above me. I could leave the syrupy sweetness now . . . but it was too late. Honeyed darkness enveloped me. Okaa-san, 'You are lost to me forever Rei-chan. You have forsaken your princess. You can never come back, you are a kuro hana now.'_

I heard a soft feather of early snow falling on the roof of the jinja. Someone traced patterns in the frost on the windows. I peered through my eyelashes, the room was full of a cloudy half-light. Setsuna-san's figure shaded the pale glow of the falling snow. I had fallen into the spidery world of this shadowy woman. 

…

**Translations language wise and explanations:**

Hotaru – (NOT the character from BSSM that we all know and love) fireflies

Kuro hana – dark flower


	4. Reflections

Ahhh! I was checking over the last three chapters today, and I saw that chp. 1 and 2 had been scrambled! "Smoke" was supposed to come before "Meiou". I'm not sure how long they've been like that, but I hope not for too long ** ::sob sob:: I'm really sorry to everyone who read them like that, and but just to let you know – they're supposed to be reversed. (And I know the translations are annoying guys, I apologize).

-Umeboshi

Disclaimer: . . Takeuchi-san, are you out there? If you are, and you're reading this, I'm flattered. But you shouldn't be, really, you shouldn't be. (It belongs to her – not me).

Chp. IV – Reflections 

Setsuna:

I could hear Rei-san rising from the futon in the center of the room, her hair sliding across the bedding. What had I done? I had come here with a purpose, knowing that I would meet her.  Knowing what I had to face, that her life lay in my hand. 

How could I have let down everything I knew, everything I trusted. I had let my impenetrable barrier crumble. She had been indescribably beautiful, and yet so strong. Dark and yet so fiery, glowing almost. I could still smell her on my skin from the night before, incense. Her eyes had burned like pools of unquenched anger, like liquid fire . . . like something waiting to be drowned in. 

And yet when had I ever wanted to drown in anything, to lose hold of the fragile reality I had created for myself in the endless time I had? There was no one to be angry with but myself.

I should not have been here yet, not for another few years should Rei-san have met me, have had any memory of my face or name. But I had been willing to risk all of that for what was needed . . .for what had to be done. I could have done it do, I thought defiantly, it could have worked had I been careful. But due to my mistake, my weakness, the course of history might alter or crumble. Because I had been caught in the circle of flame that this young girl created, the world might lapse into a mere shadow. If I stayed here with her, if I let myself sink any further into her eyes, everything would be ruined.

I chewed on my thin lips, wishing that for once I could turn back time with only my thoughts. I had known that this was far too dangerous to be left up to chance. That was why I'd given myself up as a tool of the future, and in the end I myself had marred the delicacy of life. I squeezed my eyes shut, missing the echoing emptiness of my home in the space between the worlds. 

I needed to think, needed to breathe in the cold silence of shadows. Her hand touched my shoulder, warm even in the early morning air. I had not heard her get up. I studied her fingers out of the corner of my eye. They were long and delicate, large for the hands of a Japanese woman, yet strong enough to snap something with a movement.

 "Setsuna-san. You're going to leave now, ne?" She did not sound sad, or particularly eager. She knew the truth, knew I could not do what I had already done with her. "I love you Setsuna-san. I will wait." That was all she said . . . simply that, nothing else. She did not plead with me as I had half expected her to, and I was glad of it because I might have despised her if she did. But no, Rei-san would not have pleaded, that was beneath her that was like our Princess.

 I did not even turn back to look at her, I could not. I slid into my black dress, wound my hair into a knot at the base of my neck and slipped on my black crocodile shoes. I walked out – forever. 

"Sayonara Hino Rei," I whispered to the snowflakes. 

…

_In a deep ruby fire rested the girl. Her eyes glittered with spite and venom, her hands bringing heat to my veins. Thick black waves curled around her small white ear, and polarized her face, taking each color to an extreme._

…

I'm not sure how far I walked, faces began to blur – their specific meanings merging until all I could see was my own self-disdain reflected in every person's eyes, Rei-san's mouth taunting me from every person I looked at. I eventually found myself in a snow-covered niwa. Graceful momoji casting a haunting glacial light onto a stone bench. I sank, my face turned upwards to the caress of the moon. I felt a salty tear trickle down along the sharp line of my jawbone. 

_Sereniti-sama, you never gave me any answers. I was too young to know for myself what it was you were asking me. Too young to understand. You have left me now . . . what shall I do?_

I watched as a face began to form in the swirling clouds of powdery-snow, a dreamy peace etched onto her features like an opium high. Her round lower lip pulsed a little, as if to assure me that it existed in living flesh. A hazy gauze of snow-fabricated hair blew across her visage, obscuring her from view. I smiled in silent bitterness, sinking my head back against an icy bough of momoji. This was Sereniti-sama's way of answering me through the spirit world, her voice coming through millions of ages, through the stars and finding me here. This was her way of reminding me of my promise.

 I could feel the snowflakes coldly collecting on the ridges of my cheekbones, and the roman ridge of my nose. I could sense myself drifting deeper into my subconscious until my body had disappeared. My spirit's limbs stretched, happy to be free of its slowly aging human body. 

_With the agility that only a spirit can have, it jumps through the caverns of peoples' minds_. _It finds him out of the hundreds, out of the millions of restless spirits. Leaves are everywhere in_ his _place_, _in his spirit's world. A dark glowing green, I can see a deer moving silently through this forest. A bright red rose tangles itself in with the branches. He stands several feet before me, a midnight blue apparition, the prince of Earth. I pause._ _Doubts trickle through my separated mind. The memory of her bright red flaming spirit's fingers rippling over my skin only stops me for a moment before I send the image towards him. He has felt her before, their spirits are familiar with one another, and it takes him only a moment to sense her before her glowing red form meets his dusky form, the two colors intermingling. _

My purpose has been achieved. With a jolt I return to the snapping cold of the park. It is done and now I may return to where I belong, in the peace of my home between the gates. 

…

**Translations language wise and explanations:**

Momoji –  Japanese maple tree

Niwa  - 


	5. Violet

This next chapter gets a little more confusing guys (is that possible? Yes). In the beginning it's not from Setsuna or Rei's point of view, just sort of . . . the "inside observer."

There are a _few_ more translations in this one, but only towards the end – so it's a little easier.

There will be a note at the bottom about what happened in the chapter, so READ it, it might help.

-Umeboshi

Disclaimer: All characters are Takeuchi-san's, except for Sumire-san.

Chp. V - Violet

A full figured tall girl lies face up upon her futon. Clouds of unruly black hair surround her face, which is completely pale as if she has not been outside for days. She looks as if she has not eaten either, and her bones are beginning to show through her delicate skin, making her look fragile as a bird. The tatami rustle outside of her fusuma. She does not move; she feels as if death has come to her, and in reality it is not far away. 

A tall man slides open the fusuma, his breathing heavy. Dark waves of thick hair damp with melting snow lie loosely against his forehead, the tips bristling softly. His eyes are black with lust, a sort of blind longing that he has not stopped to wonder the origin of. He kneels beside the futon, whispering her name roughly, between short ragged breaths. His hand caresses her cold cheek, stroking her long and elegant neck. 

"Rei-chan, I have missed you. Have you missed me? I never meant to leave you, but I'm back now. I'm back." He says, breathing into her hair and neck.

Her mouth opens slightly, her lips pursing as if to make the sound of someone's name, a protest, or a warning, but he presses his finger against her lips with an unusual violence.

"Do not speak of that, do not speak of . . ." And perhaps the next word he says is 'Her', but his words are muffled as his mouth searches out the soft flesh below her neck. His hand slides under the collar of the loose robe; mechanically her strong arms encircle his neck, pulling him down on top of her. Her long fingers reaching into his pants, reaching for what she has known before, a comfort in this darkness where she now knows nothing.

…

            Rei:

_My head rests in her lap, Okaa-san whispers to me, or perhaps she is singing softly, so softly I cannot hear what it is she is saying.  A lullaby._

_ 'My kuro hana. It will be over for you, soon. So soon. Shall I give you this gift?' Her small soft hands lower themselves to my eye level, and nestled between the round fingers is a dark purple violet. Her hands continue sinking, below my eyes, and further, until they press heavily against my stomach. Blood begins to seep from my skin, a syrupy red liquid, like a sickness, being pushed out of my body. The thorns of a black rose begin to emerge from my chest, slowly as more and more blood rises to stain this dream world, the stem rises from the depths of my body. With a great tear the bloom of the rose comes forth. The petals black as disease. Into the gaping wound left by the rose, Okaa-san places the violet. Instantaneously my stomach becomes a clean white half moon, swelling quickly against the red background until I can see nothing else but my skin. _

…

I awake naked, the cold winter wind blowing softly over my body from the open Fusuma. The sheets are crumpled at the foot of my futon, a man's undershirt and jacket intertwined with the white cloth as if someone left quickly. I recognize the jacket, but cannot remember where I have seen it before, my mind pulling up blank images.

My breasts and neck are covered in new, pale bruises and my nipples swollen and sore from touch. A hot sticky burning wells between my thighs, crimson blood streaming from somewhere deep inside me. I watch as it drains slowly out of me and on to the futon, soaking deep into the cotton and staining it deep red. Suddenly _she_ is standing above me, the dark thing of my dreams. She kneels, her long muscled hands reaching inside of me, digging deeper and deeper between my legs. Then she stands, her piercing brown eyes meeting mine. Her hands hold the pale form of a baby that glows with an inhuman violet light. She lifts the child, raising it for me to see, for only a moment. Its face is aged as an old woman's; the papery white skin perfect in its purity, not a single drop of my blood stains the flesh. The head covered in soft black down and the creased closed lids are round and have thick lashes. The hands that are tightly curled at the baby's sides are like my Okaa-san's, small like blossoms.

Cradling the infantile corpse in the crook of her narrow arm, she brushes the child's forehead with her hand. Where it passed a black mark sizzles in the creamy skin. The sign of Saturn. I felt bile rising in my throat as my eyes close against the truth. Tsuki, sui-sei, ka-sei, moku-sei,

 kin-sei, and Setsuna-san had been meiou-sei. Kaiou-sei and tennou-sei would not be far behind, and with them the bringer of destruction, do-sei. I opened my eyes to see again the child that had come from between my legs, the child that bore the mark of do-sei, but Setsuna-san had disappeared once again. 

…

**Translations language wise and explanations:**

Tsuki – Moon

Sui-sei – Mercury

Ka-sei – Mars

Moku-sei – Jupiter

Kin-sei – Venus

Meiou-sei – Pluto

Tennou-sei – Uranus

Kaiou-sei – Neptune

Do-sei – Saturn

A note: So guys, any CLUES as to who the mysterious male visitor was? It's not that much of a mystery, but it is sort of hard. I don't want to point any fingers so I'm not saying out right who it is, but if you guys have any guesses post it and tell me, cuss I want to see what everyone thinks!

And this is NOT the last chapter by the way, although it _is_ getting close to the end.


	6. Future

So this is the end! Sad, yes, I know. BUT – I'm going to write a prologue to make the story a bit clearer, and to help you to figure out who the mysterious man was ^*

I'll try to write it ASAP, so just keep an eye out for it. It'll just replace chapter one, and all of the chapters will be bumped back – so just read whatever's titled prologue!

-Umeboshi

Disclaimer: Not mine, Takeuchi-san's

Chp.VI – Future

Setsuna:

I stand between the gates of time, the clouds of an ill mist caressing my legs. I lean against my tall staff, the garnet globe glowing softly in the half-light. Somewhere behind me the baby cries softly, weakly from where I have placed her on my high-backed chair. 

The mist is like a pool of water before me, and my eyes peel back layer after layer of time, not going backwards or forwards, just through. I see the house finally, tall and brick where a lanky man with bushy white hair and his beautiful wife are waiting for a child. I have been watching them, looking through their lives for days now, back and ahead, and I see what will happen if I give the baby to them. She will be Tomoe Hotaru, and some things may still turn out as they were intended. I cannot see all the way, but because of what I can see, that is where she will go.

I turn to look at the baby, as I have tried not to in the past few days, and see again how little she resembles Rei-san. I remind myself that she is not Rei-san's daughter, that the body of this small baby is only a shell for a spirit so wild and strong is cannot be forced into the features of another. And yet something in the shape of the face, in the form of the eyelids and the softness of the hair, and something in those hands that curl so sweetly around my own are echoes of another that I have seen before. 

As I look away from the child, a voice rings in my ears; so gracious and yet distant that one could never mistake the speaker for anything but a Queen. I smile sadly and know that she has seen what has been done, from wherever she watches us in the stars, she knows. I nod my head and think 

_Forgive me Sereniti-sama; I had to see her one last time. But the child has been conceived, and she will be safe. I will put her where no one can find her until the time comes for her to discover what she carries inside her, the spirit of do-sei._

_Forgive me . . . _

_      . . . but I loved her. _

…

Rei:

An afternoon sun is setting, and I have piled up the bloody futon and sheets in the courtyard. Flames lick at the crusted brown cloth. The sight has begun to return to me slowly, and I see our future in fragments as if I were looking through a kaleidoscope and not with my usual clarity. I do not know what has been happening outside of the jinja for the past week. Usagi-chan and the other girls have been absorbed in school, flitting quietly in and out of my room for a few moments only, pausing and whispering in huddled groups in the corners before they would slip out again. 

I hear snow crunching beneath someone's feet, and look up to see Minako standing hesitantly by the torii. Her blonde hair is braided, and a white knit hat is pulled down low to keep out the cold. She is waiting for something, I know, and invitation of some kind, some sign from me that nothing has changed between us. I look down at the ground and think to myself, that she is different from Setsuna-san, that she is softer, sweeter, and younger, but when I look up she is still standing there and I know what else is different about Minako-chan as well. She will never leave me.

The End


End file.
